


Green Mustang

by sunaddicted



Series: Tumblr Prompts 2020 [4]
Category: Gotham (TV)
Genre: Banter, Bickering, Cabin Fic, Cuddling & Snuggling, Edward Deserves the Seychelles, Established Relationship, Fluff, Holiday Under Duress, Holidays, Idiots in Love, Jim Needs to Loosen Up, M/M, Multi, Polyamory, Post-Canon, Sports Cars Are Flashy But Uncomfortable, Sweet, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-15
Updated: 2020-09-15
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:40:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26485051
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunaddicted/pseuds/sunaddicted
Summary: “Badmouth my car again and I’m kicking you out of it only to run you over twice, Jim” Edward threatened, foot heavy on the gas pedal while he turned up the volume of the radio to drown out the other’s muttering: he might not have been getting his dream holiday to the Seychelles but he was getting a holiday and he would murder Jim himself before their partner ruined it.
Relationships: Oswald Cobblepot/Jim Gordon/Edward Nygma
Series: Tumblr Prompts 2020 [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1654798
Comments: 4
Kudos: 11





	Green Mustang

**Author's Note:**

> For the lovely @thegreenfairy13 who asked for "Why do you always have to be such a stubborn bastard? Relax and enjoy the ride" for either gobblepot or nygmobblegordon (or whatever the name for this ot3 is lmao). I hope that you enjoy it!

_Green Mustang_

Jim fidgeted in the seat of the car that was more uncomfortable than it had any right to be for being some kind of sports car - or so he thought, he wasn’t really sure: he had never been a fan of cars, all he cared about was that they worked and brought him from point A to point B without much fuss and preferably comfortably enough that when he climbed out of them his back didn’t ache in the kind of way that would remind him of just how old he was getting.

Not even the various iterations of the Batmobile were enough to make him salivate like many other folks - though, he didn’t envy the autopilot and the various weapons it was accessorized with, those were the kind of upgrades that could only make one’s life easier in Gotham.

Man of law or not.

Not that Batman was a man of the law and Jim was aware that he really had no right to bitch about vigilantism at anyone who would listen to him and actually write down his words verbatim on the papers - not with his past riddled with insubordination and killing for bounties - but what else was he supposed to do besides telling people not to haunt the streets with pitchforks and enact a parody of justice? He understood the frustration, of course he did, but he had also learnt that the lawful way was the _right_ way - as flawed as it might be.

If only the Batman came out clean and showed his face to the city - if only the vigilant made it a little easier to work with him. It made him wonder about why the man didn’t lose the cowl; it wasn’t like the GCPD ran on the straight and narrow, there were plenty of crooked cops and even more that were willing to bend the law - Jim himself included: whoever he was, he could have had ample space of manoeuvre in the GCPD.

The only comfort was that Gotham wasn’t the only city with a hero of its own that operated outside the boundaries of law - though, their Caped Crusader was the only one who saw it fit to jump from roof to roof dressed as a bat and peered down at the city sleek with rain while perched on a gargoyle.

“Can you shut up?”

Jim whipped his head to the side, blinking at Edward “I wasn’t even talking”

“You’re thinking very stupid things and very loudly at that: it’s distracting”

“Are you going to use that as your official excuse for your shitty driving?”

“Excuse you, I am a better driver than you are”

“You really aren’t, you’re almost as bad as Oswald” and it was something, considering that the other man not only had a fucked up leg but that he almost never drove himself around to boot; Jim knew that Oswald could drive, he had stolen his car under his nose more than once, but he preferred showing off his wealth and letting a chauffeur handle Gotham’s traffic - he still hadn’t managed to pry from the man whether it really was just laziness or it was actually better for his leg. Maybe it was a mix of both.

“Seriously Jim, turn off your brain before I bash your head in”

“You never say that when I come up with fun ideas in bed”

“That’s the exception to the rule”

“Liar” if he hadn’t been tolerably smart in the other’s eyes, Jim knew that Edward wouldn’t have kept him around - not even to fuck.

Not when he had Oswald.

Well, _they_ had Oswald - but still.

Jim pushed the thought away before it had the time to take root in his mind: things were complicated and that was it - no matter how many years they had been sort of dating, falling into bed with one another, hiding their relationship from the glossy tabloids that the Gothamites loved to read while absentmindedly slurping on their breakfasts or riding the train to work, the situation was still tricky.

 _Blurry_.

Jim knew that it partly was his fault.

Not exclusively, though.

“What are you even worried about?” Ed inquired, narrowing his eyes as he cut a corner a little too tightly as he swerved the car into the alleyway that housed the backdoor of the Iceberg Lounge; no matter the chicness of Diamond District, the alley was as dark and filthy as any other one in the city - the contrast made even starker by the wealth dripping from the façades that overlooked the main streets of the neighbourhood.

“Who says I’m worried?”

Sometimes Edward really had to wonder if Jim truly had two brain cells to rub together; he turned around to look at the man sitting besides him, as tense as a violin chord that had been tightened almost to the snapping point - it wasn’t the kind of demeanor one was supposed to exhibit while on holiday, even if the proper trip hadn’t started yet.

Not that the trip was going to be anything grand and outlandish - it certainly wasn’t the holiday in the Seychelles that Edward had proposed through a beautifully illustrated PowerPoint and glossy brochures that he had nicked from the only decent travel agency in the Narrows, even if he had no idea about who the hell could afford such trips around there. Well, he could but he was a special case and he had a very loaded partner - the other not so much; being the Commissioner really was a thankless job and Edward couldn’t really fathom why Jim had taken it anyway: it wasn’t like the man actually preferred signing on paperwork and rubbing shoulders with the upper echelons when he could have been in the streets, terrorising the criminal underground Gotham had to offer.

Still, it was a break.

In a shitty, cold cabin in the woods two hours from Gotham - isolated enough that they wouldn’t meet anyone for the whole week out there but not so much that they wouldn’t get internet and signal on their phones, in case the Commissioner or the Kingpin of Gotham were called back to tend to an emergency.

 _Still_.

Edward still dreamed of the fucking Seychelles, with their endless sunny days, beaches rippling with gold sand and a sea so azure that it rivalled the best gems he had stolen here and there.

Maybe next year he could try again - they had to give in sooner or later, right?

“It’s just-” Jim closed his mouth with a click when he heard the noise of the trunk of the car being popped open, hand drifting to the gun that he hadn’t been able to just leave home.

“It’s just Oswald, Jim” Edward sighed heavily “Slip on the backseat”

Jim didn’t even try to put up a fight: not only Edward’s stupidly expensive - bought with stolen money - car was uncomfortable, it also had only two doors and the back row of seats was more of a torture device than any actual torture devices he had been strapped to and being built just as small as Oswald but being less stocky than the other man, Jim’s fate was to be relegated to the backseat because he was the only one who could “comfortably” endure a ride there.

“Hello”

Jim smiled tightly at Oswald, accepting the kiss the other man offered him only after shooting a careful glance at both ends of the alley - just to be sure “Hi”

“You look tense” Oswald observed, waiting for Jim to fold into the backseat before pushing his own back into its original position and sitting down “He is tense” 

Edward leaned in, bestowing his own greeting kiss upon the other’s corrugated forehead “Not my fault”

“You have given him more white hair than I have over the years”

“ _He_ is right here and doesn’t appreciate to be talked about in such a way” Jim spat out, crossing his arms “I just think it’s a bad idea” he blurted out as Edward restarted the car, before the man could peel out of the alleyway and get back into Gotham’s traffic.

“ _Jim_ ”

“You and I both gone, Oswald: it’s a recipe for disaster”

“Batman can handle the city on his own for a week” Edward pointed out - especially since neither he nor Oswald would be around to make things complicated for him; sure, Oswald has his fingers in many sticky pies and whatever deals he had already signed on were going to be brought to term but at least his people wouldn’t start anything new while Penguin was away.

“You know I don’t like that”

“Why do you always have to be such a stubborn bastard?” Oswald let out a noise that was between a sigh and an annoyed little scream “Relax and enjoy the ride”

“As if that’s possible in this shitty car”

“Badmouth my car again and I’m kicking you out of it only to run you over _twice_ , Jim” Edward threatened, foot heavy on the gas pedal while he turned up the volume of the radio to drown out the other’s muttering: he might not have been getting his dream holiday to the Seychelles but he was getting a holiday and he would murder Jim himself before their partner ruined it.

* * *

Oswald carefully climbed on the bed to avoid spilling the glass of wine he was clutching in his hand while in the other he held onto an ice pack that he couldn’t wait to slam down on his aching knee - well, maybe not _slam_ it because he didn’t want to hurt even more than he already did but he really couldn’t wait for the cold to start seeping into his join and hopefully anesthetize some of the pain that was radiating from it.

Fuck Ed and fuck his stupidly uncomfortable car.

“Are you feeling better?”

“I’m fine”

Oswald knew he was known for having a short temper but people really didn’t know the patience he had to put in day after day to deal both with Jim _and_ Edward; as different as they could be, both men could still be insufferable in the same way that forced Oswald to swallow down the poison in his mouth before he said something he would regret so that he could work around the crisis _du jour_ “I don’t like being away from Gotham any more than you do but-” he raised his voice a little before the other man could start retorting “-we promised Edward that we would try” 

Jim deflated, the reminder killing any argument he might have gotten out “I can’t help being stressed”

“I know but if that’s not a sign that you do need a holiday maybe more than Edward and I both, I don’t know what else it is”

“Fair” Jim murmured, pursing his lips - the fact that his lover’s words rang true didn’t mean that he had to like them; he knew that he was wound up too tightly, that he missed on too many nights of sleep, that he stretched himself thin over the city. The tiredness had nestled so deeply into the marrow of his bones that power naps weren’t enough anymore to make it feel less heavy and not all the swill that passed as coffee in the GCPD would actually make him feel energetic: he was running on fumes and adrenaline - he had been running on those for a while now.

 _Still_.

Oswald sighed as he cuddled closer into the other man’s side “Just try” and if his nerves really had improved after a few days… well, Oswald supposed he would be the one to have to break it to Edward that they had to go back home - he wasn’t really looking forward to the disappointment their partner would look at them with “Have some wine”

“I really must look like shit for you to relinquish your glass”

“He just knew I was coming with more” Edward teased, slightly lifting the glasses in his hands.

“Satisfied with the sanitation?”

“It’s a half abandoned cabin in the woods, Oswald. How did you expect me not to clean the bathroom and the kitchen is beyond my comprehension”

“You’re on holiday”

“ _In a half abandoned cabin in the woods_ ”

“Thank you, Ed” Jim murmured before the bickering could escalate into a fight, leaning up to kiss his cheek and relieve him of one of the glasses while Edward situated himself on the bed - a little small for three adult men to sleep in, let alone to have sex, but they would make it work: they had had sex in worse places “I’m sorry we didn’t help you clean”

“It’s fine, I didn’t want the help” he had just wanted to make at least kitchen and bathroom habitable “Apology accepted, though” Edward added rubbing their cheeks together, soaking up the physical attention - God but it was nice to finally be away from Gotham and being able to take their time to enjoy one another’s presence, to really feel _close_.

No Man’s Land, for how horrible it had been, had allowed them to actually build the relationship that they still were nurturing years after the rubble had been cleared and the city had been rebuilt; none of them had really believed that they would make it out alive and that had broken down the barriers, drawn them to one another, made it possible for them to live their love without fear.

He kind of missed it.

“I love you”

“I love you too”

“I love you both but please, shut the fuck up: Big Brother is starting”

The groan that Jim buried in his chest made Edward chuckle, fingers going to play with the short hair at the nape of his neck.

Yes, things were harder but Edward was determined to work with what he had to keep them - even if it was a cabin in the woods, trash reality tv and far too good wine to be drank in the wrong glasses.

 _It was worth it_.

**Author's Note:**

> Detail that didn't make the cut: Aubrey James totally is one of the contestants and Oswald watches the reality show only because he takes a sick and twisted pleasure in trying to vote the man out every week.


End file.
